I had been thinking about visiting the RSPB reserve at Blacktoft Sands on the South bank of the river Humber for a while now and as I had just recently heard that the Spoonbills were in residence there I didn’t need any more excuses to pay a visit. 

It was a lovely start to the day, the sun was breaking through the early morning mist and the temperature was around 15C with a light Easterly breeze. It is just a 35 minute drive from home to the reserve,  the new road on the outskirts of Goole near to the new distribution centres looks to have shortened the journey as this road takes you straight into the dockland area of the town and out towards Swinefleet. 

It was around 9.30am when I arrived in the reception hide and met the wardens, after a chat I headed off to the Xerox hide to the left of the reception area. This is a double decker hide, the view from the upper level was good with great views across the lagoon, the lower level although good, the views out of the windows were partially obliterated due to the long grass in front of the hide which really hindered any decent photos of the wildlife. 

I set up the camera gear on the upper level and stayed there for about thirty minutes. A pair of Spoonbills flew in to the left of the lake and promptly started feeding; although quite far away they were still closer than any view I could have got at Fairburn that is until my next visit of course. There were lots of Snipe, Black Tailed Godwits, Ruff, Little Egrets and Lapwing all enjoying the mudflats at the water’s edge and the small islands. I don’t think I have seen such a selection or as many waders as this before, unfortunately the majority of the birds were either sat or standing on one leg hard fast asleep! After about thirty minutes or so the pair of Spoonbills took to the air heading off in a westerly direction so I quickly packed up the camera gear and followed the path to the ‘Marshland hide’ sure enough the Spoonbills had landed in front of this hide, unfortunately there was lots of like-minded photographers and birders already in the hide when I arrived so space was somewhat limited. I found a seat and set up the camera gear and stayed there for the next hour or so. The Spoonbills were busily walking back and forth in front of the hide giving all of us some good views. There was a Grey Heron busily feeding to the right of the hide completely oblivious to the Spoonbills, I counted six Little Egrets around the hide and as for the Black Tailed Godwits, Ruff, Knot and Lapwings well just too many to count.  At around 11.30am a flock of 12 Greylag Geese flew over the water in front of the hide, circled and came in to land. I counted at least fifteen Lapwing feeding on the mudflats and looking through the binoculars watched a Redshank and Water Rail on the far side of the lagoon.

As the morning went on more and more visitors were coming into the hide so just before noon I packed the gear away and headed back to the warden in the Reception hide for a coffee before the journey home.  I will have to see if I can arrange another visit before the school summer holidays.